As roll-playing games in which a game player goes through a simulated experience as a video character (hereinafter, merely “character”) on a video screen, adventure games in which a main character grows while repeating various actions such as battles with, procurements of and operations of objects such as other characters, items and device objects in various scenes are known. In the case of games of this type, gaming nature is improved by providing the respective objects with different abilities, personalities, characteristics, etc.
In the above adventure games, various abilities of the main character change as the main character take various actions such as battles with, procurements of and operations of objects. However, since ability changing factors depend only on contents of actions taken against the objects, these games tend to lack ingenuity as a game.
Accordingly, games whose ingenuity is improved by adopting characters called option characters which are followers of the main character have been developed in recent years. However, since the conventional option characters act in accordance with a game program regardless of operation by the game player, the game player has a little personal attachment to the option characters although they are followers of the main character. Thus, adoption of the option characters has led to only a little improvement of ingenuity.
In view of the above situation, an object of the present invention is to provide a video game system capable of providing a highly ingenious and interesting game by letting a game player involve in actions of option characters, a character action control method and a readable storage medium storing a character action control program.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a character action control method used in a video game in which game images including a main character and an option character which is a follower character of the main character are displayed in a game space. The method comprises the steps of storing contents of actions taken by the option character against objects appearing in the game for each of the objects excluding the option character, selecting any one of the objects excluding the option character in the game space as a target in response to operation of a first operable member, displaying a visually recognizable mark for the selected object, and causing the option character to execute the content of the action against the target in response to operation of a second operable member.
According to this method, the game player operates the first operable member to select the target. Further, when the game player operates the second operable member, an instruction is given to cause the option character to execute the content of action against the target. Since the game player can get involve in the option character's actions by the above two operations, he has more personal attachment to the option character, which leads to an improved ingenuity of the game.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.